Melissa Leo Portrait - P 2011
Oscar-winning directors and actors are among the star guests due in Sarajevo next month for the 20th anniversary edition of the Bosnian city’s film festival.
Academy award winners, actress Melissa Leo (The Fighter) and directors Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) and Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land) will be rubbing shoulders with top international talents that include actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Berenice Bejo, Ariane Labed and directors Mike Leigh, who will present a screening of his latest film, Mr. Turner, and Michael Winterbottom, whose career was launched in 1997 with Welcome to Sarajevo, a film set during the city’s wartime siege.
Winterbottom will talk to audiences during screenings of a retrospective of his films and Leo will meet young filmmakers at the Sarajevo Talents workshops.
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Acclaimed Hungarian art house director Bela Tarr will head the festival’s main feature competition jury and other guests include directors Cristi Puiu, Vladimir Periši?, Aida Begi?, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec and Isild Le Besco who will present their films, created as part of the Bridges of Sarajevo omnibus, and Chinese director and recipient of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, Yi’nan Diao will present his film Black Coal, Thin Ice, together with the leading actress Lun Mei Gwei.
Other guests include designer and director Agnes B., Bosnian-Herzegovinian director Jasmila Žbani?, who will present her new film Love Island, and Simon McBurney, who stars in Woody Allen‘s Magic in the Moonlight.
The 20th edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival runs from Aug. 15 through Aug. 23.
